Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Travelling Through Time On Updated Google Maps

Trips down memory lane are now available on Google Maps, with the new feature to debut on Wednesday as part of the "Street View".

Street View snapshots will now include an option to see what neighborhoods and landmarks looked like at different periods in the last seven years.

"As time goes by, many of these images are going to become vintage," predicted Vinay Shet, a Google product manager who oversaw the company's glimpse into the past. "We want our maps to be comprehensive as we build a digital mirror of the world."

The free time-tripping option allows you to see how neighborhoods in cities like Tohoku, Japan looked before and after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck in March 2011, or the gradual recovery of New Orleans neighborhoods in the years following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

Street View's scenes often include people who happened to be in the frame when Google's cars took the picture. Such pictures have often upset people who were captured, so Google now blurs the images of people who contact the company asking to be shielded from Street View.